Droid Day 1 (ex BlackBerry user)

[Jason]

I miss my keyboard shortcuts. Like in google maps hitting the 0 (zero) key to go to "my location" on the map.

• Different profiles for notifications!! BlackBerry let me create different profiles with different ringtones/sounds etc for whatever. Just more customizable.
• How about vibrating before actually ringing/making a sound?
• Phone dialer! I should be able to type in a contacts name right from the start. Instead you have to go to contacts and then scroll through the list to find the person. Was easier on BlackBerry.
• My email from gmail does not show up under "Messaging". I would like one folder for ALL my messages (voicemail, text, sms, mms, email, etc etc).

-Pete

1. There are keyboard shortcuts to open apps but that is it
2. You could pick different ringtones for pretty much anything also. You usually find this out by pressing menu and into nofication settings
3. Mines vibrates before it rings
4. The search button is better. when you do a search it will bring up the music, contacts, apps, browser, and youtube. Any of those can be disabled also
5. I dont know about that one. I personally never liked it that way I like it better this way. I know you're use to it because of the blackberry

 

[allenajd]

ive had my droid for over 3 weeks now. I came from a BlackBerry as well and I tell you, the first few days I wondered if I made a mistake and considered going back to Tmo and getting their new Bold. It only took a few days, but I came to love this device and it still amazes me what it can do vs. the BB.

Now for me, I am a task junkie, calendar etc. because I have payments and events I must know, plus I need reminders and then there are tasks on the fly that I write down to remind me and I need 2 day prior reminders, 2 minute prior reminders lol.

I still used my bb for those as a backup because I did not trust Droid yet, my bb still works in terms of using reminders, and the task and alarm, even tthough there is no plan on it and no phone service.. to me the BB was flawless to me in that regard, but now the droid has yet to let me down and all my reminders are set on it. I still use my BB as a primary wake up alarm because I love that one particular alarm tone and I am paranoid about not getting up.

try apps like Astrid, or AK Notepad, all customizable to do what you need. have fun with it.

 

[terryharrison]

Bigpete, you can select different ringtones/sounds for whatever.

 

[CDB]

What I dislike:

• I miss my keyboard shortcuts. Like in google maps hitting the 0 (zero) key to go to "my location" on the map.

While it's only 1 extra button press, when you're in maps, hit the Menu button and a My Location button appears.




Some of my personal dislikes and the apps that fixed them:

• Inability to download e-mail attachments: Download Crutch Lite
• Screen brightness management: Screebl Lite
• Homescreen won't go into landscape mode unless the keyboard is pulled out: dxTop
• Inability to do speech-to-text for SMS (mainly while driving): Handcent SMS (NEW)

 

[delaen]

My email from gmail does not show up under "Messaging". I would like one folder for ALL my messages (voicemail, text, sms, mms, email, etc etc).

Coming from a Blackberry Storm I missed this too. I stopped missing it when I realized there's no need for it since the notification bar serves the same purpose - for the most part. Being able to scroll through everything at once if you don't remember where a certain message was sent was nice though.

 

[BigPete]

Bigpete, you can select different ringtones/sounds for whatever.

You guys are misunderstanding this point and I'm guessing it's because you never had a BlackBerry? The BlackBerry OS allows you to maintain a variety of different profiles each one with its own ringtones and vibration/ring settings for every notification under the sun. A few defaults from my Tour are Normal, Loud, Vibrate Only, and Silent. As far as I know the droid only has two modes: Sounds on and sound off.

Why can't we send files through gtalk? I could send files through gtalk on my BB... this one just seems dumb.

Whats the email attachment limit? I can't even send a 10MB 30 second video of the kids to my wife.

:icon_eek:

 

[Martin030908]

Bigpete, you can select different ringtones/sounds for whatever.

You guys are misunderstanding this point and I'm guessing it's because you never had a BlackBerry? The BlackBerry OS allows you to maintain a variety of different profiles each one with its own ringtones and vibration/ring settings for every notification under the sun. A few defaults from my Tour are Normal, Loud, Vibrate Only, and Silent. As far as I know the droid only has two modes: Sounds on and sound off.

Why can't we send files through gtalk? I could send files through gtalk on my BB... this one just seems dumb.

Whats the email attachment limit? I can't even send a 10MB 30 second video of the kids to my wife.

:icon_eek:

You can set your ringer as - ringer only / ring & vibrate / vibrate only / silent. that's without any app... this is stock options.

There is an app called Missed Call... while I'm not too familiar with it's workings since I don't have it downloaded I know it allows for much more customization with notifications and such. Give it a look, maybe that'll help.

 

[terryharrison]

Thanks CDB, I did not have the download crutch app. Great app!

 

[terryharrison]

Bigpete I can set all those things on my Droid.
And I too just came from a blackberry tour.

 

[Jason]

Bigpete, you can select different ringtones/sounds for whatever.

You guys are misunderstanding this point and I'm guessing it's because you never had a BlackBerry? The BlackBerry OS allows you to maintain a variety of different profiles each one with its own ringtones and vibration/ring settings for every notification under the sun. A few defaults from my Tour are Normal, Loud, Vibrate Only, and Silent. As far as I know the droid only has two modes: Sounds on and sound off.
:icon_eek:

You could do all those things with the Droid. Also if you install Missed Call you could change the color led for any notifications. You really cant get more customizable than android phones

 

[keiichi25]

I guess what Pete is trying to get at is something a little more like the Sound Profiles that the BB does. If you have it on one mode, the styles are set up that way. If you put it in another mode, the sounds and styles are different. His gumption is that it only has 'Sound', 'No Sound'. I guess what he might want is also the ability to 'mix and match' it... I mean, with the BB, the default sound profiles, you can still tweak them so that it can do sound on Vibrate Profile, or change the Notification sounds based on a new profile.

Now I haven't really gone to the notion of customizable sound profiles, but I would harry to guess maybe when you are at home, most of you want the less than Work Safe ringtones or notification sounds, but when at work or school, you want more 'appropriate' sounds for important, "Yes, disturb me, but not make me look like a fool." type messages, or whatever type settings. Which the BB could do if you took the time and tedious effort to work it all out to do. Otherwise, the default setup would work fine if you don't want to constantly change those settings and rely on just the sound being on and off.

 

[BigPete]

Keiichi25 got it right. I'm gonna look into missed call and the other apps recommended here. Thanks

 

[Sal R.]

What I dislike:

• I miss my keyboard shortcuts. Like in google maps hitting the 0 (zero) key to go to "my location" on the map.

You can assign keyboard shortcuts if that's your thing.

• Different profiles for notifications!! BlackBerry let me create different profiles with different ringtones/sounds etc for whatever. Just more customizable.

I have found that Foxy Ring does a better job managing different profiles since it is location based and I never have to fiddle around w/ setting different profiles depending on where I am.

• Phone dialer! I should be able to type in a contacts name right from the start. Instead you have to go to contacts and then scroll through the list to find the person. Was easier on BlackBerry.

I do miss that. Have yet to find an app that does something like that.

• My email from gmail does not show up under "Messaging". I would like one folder for ALL my messages (voicemail, text, sms, mms, email, etc etc).

Another feature I miss, but wouldn't give up the "conversation" style of sms messages for it. That's a new feature I never knew I needed. lol.

That's all I have for my first day of use. I did get a call and sent a bunch of texts, gtalks, and emails. In addition I used the maps quite a bit and tinkered with almost all the features. So far the battery has been satisfactory (I was worried about this after reading a bit) and I haven't had a single crash!


If anyone has any suggestions for some of my dislikes, I'm all ears. I'm not knocking the phone in anyway those are just things that I miss from my BlackBerry that will hopefully be rolled out in future updates or apps.

Thanks for reading!

-Pete

The battery has been problematic for me simply because I can't put my droid down. Overall, the droid's useablity blows away my bb used for personal reasons. I'll never look back.

 

[boatman2220]

Yeah the BB was very easy to set up, In holster - Out of Holster, A ring-tone for everyone's E-mail, home number, cell number. Things like that were very nice, but not a deal breaker for me. I'm sure if it can be done the Droid can do it. I might not know how to do all those things or it might not be written in the programs yet. But I bet it's coming.